Wayward Angels
by SimiStarshine
Summary: When Sydney Greene's parents were killed in a car accident when she was 11, she was adopted by Hershel and Annette her aunt and uncle. As much as she loved her family she'd always been rebellious, after her high school graduation she left the farm in search of bigger things. Then the dead started to walk. Daryl/OC


**Disclaimer: I don't own any of The Walking Dead nor the characters, ideas, and concepts. The only thing that I own is Sydney Greene and her story.**

**Summary: When Sydney Greene's parents were killed in a car accident when she was 11, she was taken and adopted by Hershel and Annette her aunt and uncle. As much as she loved her family she'd always been on the rebellious side, after her high school graduation she left the farm in search of bigger things. Then weird things started happening, people started to get sick and the dead started to walk. While the farm might have seemed smothering while she was growing up, when the dead was trying to eat the living it seemed like a welcome haven….even with squatters living on the law.**

**Author's Note: This story starts during season 2 when Carl gets shot and will progress through season 3 and probably forward. Just so you know this chapter will probably be a little slow but it will pick up with the next one I just had to get everything ironed out before the action can start.**

* * *

Chapter 1: The Prodigal Daughter's Return

Seeing the Greene farm come into view from the dirt road was the most beautiful thing Sydney had seen in her whole life. It had seemed like she'd been on the road for years instead of the three weeks it had taken her to drive from where she lived in Nashville, Tennessee to her family's farm just south of Atlanta. She'd set off trying to get home once things in Nashville had gotten too bad and the city became over ran. The problem was there were roads that were blocked by traffic or what was left of military road blocks. Food had been hard to come by and gas had been scarce still she had one thing on her mind and one thing only. She had to get home because she knew that the farm would be safe, untouched. She'd been right, the place looked just like it had the last time she'd been there six months before at Christmas. Just as she was putting the car in park she watched as the front screen door opened up and out of the large house came her family: Uncle Hershel, Beth, and Maggie along with Patricia and a boy a little older than Beth. She assumed it was Jimmy her young cousin had been head over heels for the boy for the past year but only just before that the world ended did they start dating. "We were so worried about you." Maggie said as she ran over to her cousin who to be honest was more like her sister tightly.

"You know me, I'm to mean for them to get." Sydney said as she and Maggie walked to the house where she greeted the rest of her family. "Where's everyone else at? Aunt Annette? Shawn? Otis?"

"Otis is gone out on a hunt." Beth said as they lead her into the house.

"And Aunt Annette and Shawn?" she asked.

"You could probably use a good meal." Patricia said as she nodded to Beth to join her in the kitchen.

Hershel set down with his niece at the dining room table he had a stone look on his face; he didn't need to say anything she already knew what the answer would be. "They were both infected." He said. "After they….we put them out in the barn we didn't know what else to do."

Sydney frowned as she tried to process what was said, "What do you mean you put them in the barn? You just left them like that?"

"What else would we do with them?" Hershel asked. "They're sick people they can be cured."

Sydney studied her uncle she could tell by the stoic look on his face, the desperation in his eyes that he would never see reason. He was in denial about what had really happened to his wife and step-son and there would be no reasoning with him. With all the traumatic things that were going on all around them they hadn't really witnessed what was going on in the outside world. Instead she just nodded her head, "Okay." She said.

* * *

The sun was slanting in the windows when Sydney woke up she laid there in her childhood bed for a few minutes trying to get the disoriented feeling to leave her. She groaned as she pushed herself out of bed the past few weeks had finally caught up with her and when she'd slept, she'd slept hard. Now she was suffering from it she felt like she was coming off of a really bad hang over. As she glanced around her childhood room she realized that if she didn't know any better she could trick herself into believing that the last three years hadn't happened and even more the last month. It was exactly the way she left it, she knew it had been Maggie and her Aunt Annette's doing. The floral print wall paper had been covered with posters mostly bands and her favorite cult classic films and her old Fender Strat was sitting in the corner covered in stickers. She was snapped out of the land of day dream when she heard voices coming from downstairs, voices that she didn't recognize. It was when she started to get dressed she realized that her bags were still down in her car. She made a mental note to bring them upstairs later as she opened her closet door and looked at the dated wardrobe inside. To be honest it kinda made her laugh. She changed from her pajamas into her old faded Nirvana tees-shirt that was thread bare and had holes in a few places and a pair of ripped jeans that fit her a little snugger now than what they had in days gone by. She didn't bother to brush her long blond and pink hair which hung almost to her waist before heading downstairs following the sounds of the voices to the dining room.

Standing at the table was her uncle along with a couple she didn't recognize. The woman was tall and a little too skinny she reminded Sydney of one of those housewives who spent far too much time at their palates classes and picking at leafy salads. The man was a sickly pale, it was clear that he was handsome when he didn't look like death warmed over. She could tell by the bandage at the bend of his arm that he'd given blood….to be honest too much blood and he'd done it recently. The fact that his white tee-shirt was now stained pink gave Sydney a piece of hidden information there was probably another member of their party here and the conversation she was overhearing attested to it. "Okay, so I understand when Shane gets back with this other man-"

"Otis." Hershel offered.

"Otis," the woman said then her voice turned a little snarky as she leaned against one of the dining chairs, "The idiot who shot my son."

"Ma'am, it was an accident." Hershel said sincerely.

"I'll take that under advisement, but for now he's the idiot who shot our son." She said shaking her head.

The man tried to console her, "Lori, they're doing everything they can to make it right." He said.

Lori, the woman, went on not even bothering to acknowledge her husband. "So when they get back, you can perform this surgery?"

Hershel nodded, "I'll certainly do my best."

She nodded, "Okay and you've done this procedure before?"

Hershel thought about it for a moment, "Well yes….in a sense."

"In a sense?" she asked in disbelief.

The man laid his hand over hers, "Honey we don't have the luxury of shopping for a surgeon."

She sniffled and nodded, "Yeah I understand that." She turned to Hershel, "I mean you are a doctor right?"

He nodded, "Yes ma'am of course a vet."

Relief washed over Lori's face, "A veteran, a combat medic?"

"A veterinarian," Hershel corrected.

All the hope that Lori had momentarily had left her as she stared at the older man in shock she turned to look at her husband for answers but he could give her none. "And you've done this…surgery before on what? Cows….pigs?"

The man started to say something but the toll that he'd put his body through to give blood was starting to catch up on him. He collapsed; he tried to catch himself on the table but spilled a glass of juice over the table cloth before they managed to get him in to a chair. "You're completely in over your head aren't you?" she asked.

Hershel gave her a patient look, "Ma'am….aren't we all?" he asked.

Sydney stepped into the room, "Would it make you feel better if a trauma nurse assisted?" she asked.

Lori stared at the younger woman skeptically, she didn't look like a trauma nurse she'd ever seen with her wild hair and pixie like features. "You're a trauma nurse?"

Sydney nodded, it wasn't an exact lie. The woman didn't need to know that she hadn't finished her nursing internship. "Yes, I'm Hershel's niece before all of this happened I worked at St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville."

"Nashville that's…a long way from here." Lori said.

"It is." She agreed then held her hand out, "I'm Sydney Greene."

"Lori Grimes and my husband Rick." The older woman said shaking her hand.

After the introductions were made, Hershel showed his niece to the room Carl was in and filled her in on what had happened that day while she'd slept That Otis had been hunting and had accidently shot the 11 year old boy through a deer. "You should have woke me up." She scolded him as she tied her long hair back into a thick bun.

"You needed your rest." Hershel said as he checked the boy's vitals.

"You really think you can save him?" she asked, it was a question she never would have said in front of the child's parents. But since they were in the other room eating a meal that Patricia had fixed for them she didn't see the harm in asking.

"If Otis and Shane can come through with the respirator I think he has a shot." Hershel said.

Sydney nodded, "And how long have they been gone."

"A few hours." He said.

* * *

Time seemed to once again move in slow motion, the air in the small boy's room was tense with apprehension and his condition only seemed to be getting worse. The late afternoon seemed to glide into early evening and before long the sun had set and there was still no word from Otis and Shane. Everyone strained to listen for the sound of a truck coming up the drive but it was silent. Carl slipped in and out of consciousness and his blood pressure slowly started to fall. "We can't wait much longer." Hershel said to Lori and Rick.

Rick looked at Hershel and offered him his arm. "Take some more whatever he needs, then I'm gonna go."

Lori who'd been standing at the window keeping vigilance on the road turned and gave him a confused look, "Go? Go where?"

"It's five miles…they should be back by now, something's gone wrong." Rick explained.

"Are you insane?" Lori asked, "You're not going after them."

"Rick, listen to your wife." Hershel said.

"They had to have got into trouble." He said.

"You're in no condition to do anything about it." Sydney said.

Hershel nodded in agreement, "You've given too much blood, you're barely on your feet. You wouldn't make it across the yard."

Rick gave his wife a desperate look, "If something happened…I have to go."

"No," Lori protested. "Your place is here! If Shane said he'd be back he'll be back! He's like you like that."

"I can't just sit here!" he argued.

"That's exactly what you do! If you need to pray or cry or tell God he's cruel you go right ahead! But you're not leaving Rick! Carl needs you, here." She said then her voice lower to almost a whisper, "I need you here. I can't do this alone….not this one. I can't." she said fighting back tears. Rick didn't say anything he looked between the people in the room before settling down on one of the arm chairs by the bed.

They slipped back into silence and waited started to wait again. There was no more talk of going after Otis and Shane, they would be back they had to be. Sometime later, Sydney wasn't sure how long there was the sound of a car coming up the long gravel drive. Sadly it wasn't the one they were looking for it was two of the people from Rick's group that were shown in by Maggie and after that things became quiet again.

* * *

Sydney was sitting on the edge of the bed checking the boy's vitals. "He's still losing blood faster than we can replace it-" Sydney said to Hershel as she laid the boy's wrist gently down beside of him.

Hershel nodded and turned to Rick and Lori, "And with the swelling in his abdomen we can't wait any longer or else he's just going to slip away." he finished for his niece. "Now I need to know right now if you want me to do this because I think your boy is out of time." He waited for them to respond but all Rick and Lori could do was stare at their son. "You have to make a choice!" he said firmly.

Lori gave the older man a disgusted look, "A choice?"

"Lori…you have to tell me what it is…you have to tell me…." Rick whispered to his wife.

Lori's bottom lip trembled as she turned to look at Hershel and Sydney, "We do it."

With that everyone started to move quickly, they had to turn the bedroom into a sanitary room to operate in. Hershel started to bark orders and everyone fell into place doing exactly as they said. Sydney was pretty sure that she'd never been more terrified in her whole life. She'd been in some pretty intense situations at the hospital. She'd seen some intense things but nothing that she'd learned there would prepare her for what they were going to have to do. It was surgery Civil War style and she didn't know if the small boy would be able to survive what they were going to have to do to him. More than anything she wanted to run from the room and be a little girl again but she knew that her uncle as well as this family who she barely knew needed her and she wouldn't back down from that. Once they got Carl onto the operating table, she scrubbed her hands and arms thoroughly in the hot water in the basin Patricia had brought in. She didn't have to say it out loud but she was praying for a miracle. Hershel was getting ready to cut into the boy when that miracle came, the sound of Otis' truck came barreling up the driveway.


End file.
